


Masks and Make-Up

by Polska_1999



Series: Sprint Towards Blackout (Happy Steve Bingo 2018) [24]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers Movie Night, Domestic Avengers, Friendship, Gen, Insecurity, Make-up, Natasha Romanov Feels, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-01 19:22:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16771318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polska_1999/pseuds/Polska_1999
Summary: Natasha is late to movie night. She isneverlate to movie night. Steve goes to see what’s wrong.





	Masks and Make-Up

**Author's Note:**

> For the _Make-Up_ square on my **Happy Steve Bingo** card.

Let it be known that Natasha Romanoff was one of the strongest women Steve ever met. 

However, being strong didn’t mean never needing help. Steve learned this lesson long ago, when he was still a scrawny little kid in Brooklyn that weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet. However, Natasha never had the chance to learn that same lesson. How could she have learned it, if her past had been stolen away from her by HYDRA? As a girl, she never got to play with dolls or make friends or have fun. Instead, she had been forced to grow up without a childhood, forced to live under brutal conditions without love, forced to kill others. 

When Natasha was late to movie night, the entire room seemed to sense that something was wrong. When JARVIS reported that Natasha was still in her room, Steve took it upon himself and offered to go out and find her and check in on her. He took the elevator up to her suite and knocked. 

The door opened a few seconds later. “What brings the local fossil to my door?” Natasha asked, her actions cool and collected but her eyes telling a different story underneath. Her hair was done perfectly as always, but she was missing… something.

“Can’t an old fossil check in on his less-fossil friend?” Steve said, playing along. 

“You just did check in. Good enough for you?” Her attempts at getting rid of him were a bit obvious. 

“Mind if I come in?” He asked. This question had been tricky; he couldn’t be direct because then he would have gotten a direct lie, but he also couldn’t be too forceful. 

“Not at all,” Natasha replied after a moment of slight hesitation, her answer slightly forced. She stepped aside, letting him into the room, and Steve stepped in. Natasha shut the door behind him. 

“You’re not wearing your make-up,” Steve noted, finally having realized what had been missing. 

“Didn’t get the chance to do it yet,” Natasha said offhandedly, as if it were no big deal. 

“Nat,” Steve began as he turned to face her, then paused, faltering slightly for a moment. “We both know you’re usually the first one in the room on a movie night, claiming your spot.”

“I forgot it was movie night.”

“You never forget movie night, either.” 

Nat glanced at him, her eyes betraying how she felt. She knew she was cornered. Steve knew that she was probably cursing him out mentally. 

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Natasha snapped back, almost aggressively. Then, she paused, taking a moment of consideration. When she spoke again, her tone was more timid, quieter, and she didn’t meet Steve’s gaze. “Just… having some trouble with my make-up.” Only after speaking did she make eye contact with Steve again, cautious after showing a vulnerability.

“Anything I can do to help?” Steve offered, staying calm. He did his best to reassure Nat as much as he could with his tone and posture, although he wasn’t too sure about how effective it was. He knew that showing vulnerability was difficult for her. 

Nat was silent for a moment, expression unreadable. “Follow me,” she said, walking past Steve and leading him to the bathroom. 

Upon entering the bathroom, Steve immediately noticed the small arsenal of make-up supplies on the edge of the sink. Natasha stopped in front of the sink, resting her hands on two small spots that were free of clutter. She leaned against it slightly, looking at herself in the mirror. 

“During the last mission I ran with Fury, we were trying to wrangle up an assassin that spent the last several years dodging CIA custody,” Natasha began explaining, not looking at Steve and instead staring into the mirror. “We cornered the assassin on a yacht of all places, but she was tricky and forced us to split up. Eventually we caught her and things were standard procedure from there, but…” She trailed off, looking away from the mirror.

“What’d she say?” 

Natasha met Steve’s gaze with her own. “She told me that I hide behind makeup as much as I hide behind personas.”

“And the words stuck with you while you were getting ready for movie night.”

“She was right.”

“I have to disagree with you on that.”

“Steve—”

“Nat, listen.” With that, Steve ended up giving a small pep talk about make-up and how they were all her team and cared about her as a person and not about the mask she wore, and that if make-up helped her feel more confident then he didn’t see a reason why she should stop. 

After all that was said, Natasha was silent for a few moments… before asking if Steve could help her with her makeup. 

“So, where’d Captain America learn to put on makeup?”

“Pre- World War II Brooklyn.”

“Who taught you?”

“Could you please stop talking for a moment so I could put the lipstick on you?”

“Was it Barnes?”

“Nat...”

That evening, movie night started 20 minutes late, but with the entire team present. Nat came downstairs wearing minimalistic make-up, looking badass as always while also maintaining more of her normal appearance. And if she occasionally glanced at Steve knowingly throughout the night, probably no one else noticed.

**Author's Note:**

> We're almost at the end of this set of fics! Only one more left to go, which is the surprise free-space finale. That last fic should be up soon, so probably tomorrow.
> 
> This one was a bit tougher to write, but I'm happy with how it came out. Steve's being supportive, Nat is being a bit more human... and in the end, things are okay. All in all, it's a much kinder string of events than most of the MCU.
> 
> Most of my works, including this one, are beta-read by the one and only amazingly wonderful [SpaceKeet!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceKeet/pseuds/SpaceKeet) If you get the chance, go out and give her some love!
> 
> As always, thank you all so much for reading! If you liked it, feel free to drop a kudos or comment if you have something you want to say. Wanna contact me? You can find me on [Tumblr](https://polska-1999.tumblr.com/) or ask me for my Discord in the comments.


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